{"id":54085,"date":"2025-11-19T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54085"},"modified":"2025-11-19T14:53:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:53:58","slug":"disco-elysium-director-wants-to-create-a-dark-depressing-game-depicting-the-worst-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/disco-elysium-director-wants-to-create-a-dark-depressing-game-depicting-the-worst-of-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Disco Elysium\u00a0director\u00a0wants\u00a0to create a dark, depressing\u00a0game depicting\u00a0the \u201cworst of humanity\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Robert&nbsp;Kurvitz, lead writer and creative director of&nbsp;the acclaimed&nbsp;<strong>Disco Elysium<\/strong>,&nbsp;recently&nbsp;made an appearance&nbsp;at&nbsp;Korea\u2019s G-Star&nbsp;2025. As reported by local outlet&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamemeca.com\/view.php?gid=1768202\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gamemeca<\/a>,&nbsp;Kurvitz&nbsp;joined Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, the lead writer behind&nbsp;Sandfall&nbsp;Interactive\u2019s Clair&nbsp;Obscur: Expedition 33,&nbsp;in a talk session&nbsp;themed around&nbsp;storytelling in games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the session,&nbsp;Kurvitz&nbsp;touched upon the kind of themes&nbsp;he\u2019d&nbsp;like to explore in his future work&nbsp;(Note that this is based on machine translation, so the&nbsp;exact nuance should be taken with a grain of salt).&nbsp;\u201cI want to make a very gloomy game that lays&nbsp;bare&nbsp;the worst of humanity \u2013 depressing, negative and dark,\u201d he commented. It seems the story&nbsp;Kurwitz&nbsp;is envisioning&nbsp;would explore&nbsp;how far a \u201csuccessful character\u201d can plunge into failure and suffering, or as he puts it, \u201chow&nbsp;deep&nbsp;humans can&nbsp;sink&nbsp;into the mud.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1710\" height=\"934\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1710px) 100vw, 1710px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54057-header.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-54088\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54057-header.jpg 1710w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54057-header-380x208.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54057-header-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54057-header-1536x839.jpg 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although&nbsp;not quite as&nbsp;hopelessly dark as the potential new project&nbsp;he&#8217;s&nbsp;describing, the creation of Disco Elysium also took a toll on&nbsp;Kurvitz. He describes&nbsp;writing as \u201ca very miserable art.\u201d&nbsp;Reflecting on how he&nbsp;crafted Disco Elysium\u2019s narrative,&nbsp;Kurwitz&nbsp;commented, \u201cI&nbsp;actively&nbsp;incorporated&nbsp;elements like anger,&nbsp;sorrow&nbsp;and obsession into the game&nbsp;to make players chase after them. This is how I strove to draw them into these absurd&nbsp;situations, into the&nbsp;fantasy.\u201d&nbsp;For&nbsp;Kurvitz, the process was painful.&nbsp;\u201cI&nbsp;had to put political anguish and my own existence into the game, and to even start working on it in the&nbsp;morning, I needed constant personal effort to motivate myself.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, details about&nbsp;Kurvitz\u2019s&nbsp;ongoing and\/or&nbsp;future projects&nbsp;remain&nbsp;scarce. In 2022, it was reported that he had&nbsp;founded a new studio alongside Disco Elysium lead artist Aleksander&nbsp;Rostove. Called Red Info, the new company was&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;set&nbsp;up with funding from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/after-watching-the-explosive-documentary-on-disco-elysiums-legal-battle-i-cant-fathom-how-disco-elysium-2-will-ever-be-made\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chinese game&nbsp;publisher NetEase<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disco Elysium creative director and lead writer Robert\u00a0Kurvitz recently talked about the themes he&#8217;d like to explore in his future work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":54087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-54085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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